With songs from two of his most important albums (Muddy Waters Sings Big Bill and Muddy Waters at Newport), this is a rock-solid, 49-track collection of essential Muddy Waters material. (He was born McKinley Morganfield but became known to the world by the nickname given to him by his grandmother.) Along with world-famous selections like "Got My Mojo Working" (Parts 1 and 2), "I'm Your Hoochie Coochie Man," "Baby, Please Don't Go," and "Mean Mistreater," the Chess vaults turn up "You Need Love," "Walking Thru the Park," "Real Love," "Brown Skin Woman," "Down by the Deep Blue Sea," "Read Way Back" (with Willie Dixon on bass vocal), and the previously unreleased instrumental "Sweet Black Angel" (with Earl Hooker on guitar).

"Waters retained a style that evoked the sound of the Delta blues. His Library of Congress recordings illustrate the influence of Son House through their searing slide guitar playing, which he maintained throughout his band recordings in the 1950s. In contrast to the smoother Chicago blues of Big Bill Broonzy (1893–1958), Muddy Waters brought a tough, aggressive edge to the urban blues, making him a seminal figure in the development of the style."—Encyclopedia of African-American Culture and History